July 31, 2015

Body Complex, the haunting, gorgeous second record from Heathered Pearls, is now streaming in its entirety on Hype Machine. Inspired by the music Jakub Alexander heard growing up outside of Detroit, the album blends the icy sheets of electronics found on its predecessor, Loyal, with steady 4/4 rhythms and moody, slow-developing melodies. Available for pre-order on Coke-bottle clear vinyl, Body Complex has been praised by The Quietus as ” catchy and compulsive…a psycho-journey through imagined streets and along deserted freeways.”

July 30, 2015

Fort Romeau writes songs that take the classic sounds of Chicago house and reconfigure them. The snatches of gospel vocals remain, as do the insistent rhythms, but the end result is more soulful and spacious. All of those preferences turn up over the course of this riveting 50-minute mix he crafted for Phonica; songs dissolve beautifully into one another, melodies rise and fall but the beat remains driving and propulsive. The result is a perfect complement to his own singular work.

July 30, 2015

On Friday, August 14th from 8:30pm – 1:30am at Upstairs at Ace Hotel Downtown LA, Ghostly International will be taking control of Drip’s Creator Session series. The lineup features artists with diverse and wide-ranging tastes. Jakub Alexander, who records as Heathered Pearls, is known for his deep take on Detroit techno; Moderna balances steady, pulsing drums with bright flashes of synth; and Raeo combines the cut-and-paste aesthetic of hip-hop with glitchy, twitching rhythms.

July 28, 2015

“Movements,” the new 35-minute piece from Xeno & Oaklander, opens with the sound of whipping wind. It’s appropriate: the piece, which was commissioned by National Center for the Arts of Grenoble, France, was inspired by the idea of travel through both space and time. But if its first few seconds establish the setting, the rest of it expounds on the theme: groaning, whistling synths—namely, the Serge Modular and the new Sequential Prophet 6—rise and descend, and the song eventually becomes a kind of sprawling, electronic landscape, with layers of sound rippling like the Northern Lights. There’s an eerieness to the piece to be sure—all of the tones moan like ghosts—but it’s also oddly serene. It’s the kind of music that might soundtrack a Tarkovsky space opera or a yellowed mid ‘70s educational film. Recorded live in the duo’s Brooklyn studio, “Movements” is a window to another world.

July 28, 2015

On his last record, Loyal, Jakub Alexander, who records as Heathered Pearls, wrote songs that were spacious and ambient, tranquil synth soundtracks for low-lit evenings. On the upcoming Body Complex, he’s altered his approach. The Shigeto-featuring “Abandoned Mall Utopia” starts with the same kind of ‘70s sci-fi hum, but it quickly transforms to become something more propulsive. A steady, pulsing four-on-the-floor rhythm beats out beneath rippling layers of electronics, making the song feel like a night drive on a dark, digital highway.

July 22, 2015

The latest installment of GhostlyCast is a bona fide stunner. Jock Club, best known for his work with Arizona garage maniacs Destruction Unit has woven together a tense, driving mix of current favorites and timeless classics. Stylistically similar to his own work, this set — recorded live in Arizona — seamlessly blends a host of artists into one throbbing, shadowy whole. Ekkohaus, Liam Geddes, Randomer and many others turn up along the way, and the mood throughout is both propulsive and dark.

July 15, 2015

One of slickest cuts from Michna’s recent Thousand Thursday album is “Solid Gold,” a chilly electro-pop single featuring NYC/LA vocalist MNDR. Now, a handful of months after its release, we’re pleased to unveil the song’s brilliant video by designer/video artist Christophe Thockler. The piece—a stop-motion animation made with 8,500 photos of “60 rocks from 15 different countries all around the world”—premiered today on The Creators Project, where they called it a “spectacle of spinning, sliding stone shapes.” Watch Michna’s captivating new video above, and check out the premiere here.

July 6, 2015

Homesick is the debut album by Bay Area producer Matrixxman, whose sprawling techno opus is now available to hear in its entirety. Courtesy of FACT, the full-length premiered today as a full stream, and was published along with an in-depth overview of the music and its themes. And more glowing reviews of Matrixxman’s new record are already coming in—Pitchfork has called it “an effortlessly efficient vision of techno,” and SPIN named it Album of the Week. Homesickpre-orders don’t ship until July 10, but you can still immerse yourself in its dystopian sci-fi sounds now.

July 1, 2015

The second single to appear from Body Complex, Heathered Pearls’ upcoming sophomore album, is an appropriately titled ambient-techno cut called “Warm Air Estate.” Featuring vocals from Beacon singer Outerbridge (a.k.a. Thomas Mullarney III), the song premiered on The FADER, where it was described as graceful, warm, and resplendent. We couldn’t have put it better ourselves.

June 30, 2015

A companion piece to Fort Romeau’s recent Insides album, Frankfurt Versions features four excellent producers connected to the titular German city—including Massimiliano Pagliara, Tuff City Kids, Roman Flügel, and Orson Wells. The record won’t be available until July 6, but a week beforehand, XLR8R has premiered the full stream of its five eclectic remixes.